PREVENTING BULLYING

INTRODUCTION

Bullying, long tolerated by many as a rite of passage into adulthood, is now

recognized as a major and preventable public health problem, one that can have
long-lasting consequences (McDougall and Vaillancourt, 2015; Wolke and
Lereya, 2015). Those consequences—for those who are bullied, for the
perpetrators of bullying, and for witnesses who are present during a bullying
event—include poor school performance, anxiety, depression, and future
delinquent and aggressive behavior. Federal, state, and local governments have
responded by adopting laws and implementing programs to prevent bullying and
deal with its consequences. However, many of these responses have been
undertaken with little attention to what is known about bullying and its effects.
Even the definition of bullying varies among both researchers and lawmakers,
though it generally includes physical and verbal behavior, behavior leading to
social isolation, and behavior that uses digital communications technology
(cyberbullying). This report adopts the term “bullying behavior,” which is
frequently used in the research field, to cover all of these behaviors.
Bullying behavior is evident as early as preschool, although it peaks during the
middle school years (Currie et al., 2012; Vaillancourt et al., 2010). It can occur
in diverse social settings, including classrooms, school gyms and cafeterias, on
school buses, and online. Bullying behavior affects not only the children and
youth who are bullied, who bully, and who are both bullied and bully others but
also bystanders to bullying incidents. Given the myriad situations in which
bullying can occur and the many people who may be involved, identifying
effective prevention programs and policies is challenging, and it is unlikely that
any one approach will be appropriate in all situations. Commonly used bullying
prevention approaches include policies regarding acceptable behavior in schools
and behavioral interventions to promote positive cultural norms.
When considering all the rights infringed upon when a child is bullied,one of the
most important rights transgressed, is the right to education.Education plays an
integral part in the development of a well-balanced young person and by
eliminating this basic right, the balance isdisturbed. To illustrate: suppose that a
child is beaten up at school by afellow learner, to such an extent that his physical
injuries keep him fromschool for a number of weeks. His emotional injuries cause
him todevelop didaskaleinophobia6and therefore a total imbalance occurs.This is
counte rproductive to study, with holding this child from laying thefoundation for
his future and so a negative snowball effect starts. Ineffect, one violent lash-out
can ruin a child’s life by keeping him fromobtaining the necessary intellectual
tools needed tofurther himself in life.

1.2 Problem statement

This sudy focused on effects of bullying on the students specially ,answer to the
following questions would be seen through material resources.

1.How to prevent bullying ?

2.What are the effects of bullying on the students ?

3.What do they feel when they are bullied ?

1.2.1 Bullying statistics

In 2012, a study conducted by Unisa established that out of a research sample of

3371 learners, 1158 learners (34.4%) had been victims ofbullying.7Furthermore,
emotional bullying is evidently more prevalent,with 55.3% of learners falling
victim to emotional bullying, 38.4% beingvictimised physically, 16.9% being
tormented via social media (socialmedia) and 2.8% being the victims of verbal
bullying.8This study alsoshows that 29.3% of bullying incidents transpire at
school after class;and 32.2% of bullying incidents occur during class.9In 2008,
over amillion South African learners were subjected to some form of violence10
at school.11 It is unlikely that these statistics have declined over the lastfour
years, as media reports on bullying have been escalating.12 Studieshave also
shown that a survey of 207 learners, indicated that 60,9% had been bullied.13
The first South African national youth risk behavioural survey was conducted by
the Department of Health in 2002.14 According to the results, 49,3% of
secondary school pupils in the Free State had been bullied in the month before
the survey was undertaken.15 A previous16 National Schools Violence Study
undertaken by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, the largest national
survey conducted with regards to school violence to date,17 included 120
primary schools, 139 principals, 277 teachers and 6 787 learners.18 The findings
of this survey were:

Background and historical overview

Bullying in schools is a real problem.20 By sending one’s children to school, one
lays the foundation for their life. Bullying is a harmful external factor that sets the
stage for permanent damage which will ultimately have a lasting, negative effect
on the child’s life, reaching beyond puberty, to adulthood. Bullying may be
physical or psychological, which in turn means that it is much more complex than
mere playground pushing and shoving. In South Africa, no successful measures
have been taken yet to eradicate bullying, whether legislative, or through policy,
awareness or any other means by which to stop the terror that is bullying.
Bullying has always been an omnipresent phenomenon. However, the general
attitude of people towards bullying in the past caused bullying to be glanced over
as a “right of passage”.21 Only in recent years have professionals such as
lawyers and educators realised that bullying is in fact a form of abuse.22 The fact
that bullying has only been labelled a problem in the last 30 to 40 years, makes it
difficult to trace the roots.

Hypothesis
It takes a village to raise a child,35 in other words a team effort is required to
address bullying properly. A holistic 36 approach would therefore properly address
the issue of bullying by getting all stakeholders involved. By either drafting anti-
bullying legislation or amending current legislation to bring to life a national anti-
bullying movement 37in keeping with the spirit of Ubuntu, 38bullying in South
African schools can be abolished.39
 Significant of the study
This research might help the following people to know how to deal with the
problem of bullying and its obvious consequence and effects on the students.

To the parents : To know the signs if their children experience bullying in school
and how they will help there childrens who are being bullied.

To the students: To know how bullying affects them and how to handle bullying

To the teachers : To know there students who are experiencing bullying in class.

Scope and Limitation

Bullying is still a big problem in our community ,especially in school .In fact ,the
rate of students being bullied in school is getting higher and higher every year.
This study directly concerns bullies and those who are bullied . This study is
deeper oure knowledge on why and how bullies act that way and its cause and
effect moreover the results of this study can be used as future references for
furtlen investigation on bullying.

Definition of terms
A person is being bullied when he/she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to
negative actions on the part of one or more other persons. Negative action is
when a person
intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical
contact,
through words or in other ways. Note that bullying is both overt and covert
behaviors.

1.Saying hurtful and unpleasant things

2. Making fun of others
3. Using mean and hurtful nicknames
4. Completely overlooking someone
5. Deliberately excluding someone from a group of friends
6. Hitting, kicking, pulling hair, pushing or shutting a person inside
7. Telling lies
8. Spreading false rumors
9. Sending mean notes
10. Trying to get other students to dislike another person
 Chapter II
Review of Related of Literature
Bullying begins at an early age with students demonstrating behaviors like biting,
pinching or scratching. Teasing and taunting may follow with glaring and staring.
Shoving, pushing, and tripping may ensue along with pestering and fighting.
Boys may name call, steal lunch money and threaten younger boys while girls
may ignore and exclude others or undermine friendships. Thus, bullying can
start small and get out of hand unless there is consistency with what is
expected. Everyone should have the same expectations and be on the same
page. If someone is being bullied at home, at play and/or at school, the behavior
should be reported to a trusted adult. The information should be factual and, if
possible, logged in a journal describing the type of bullying, where and when it is
happening, who is involved, and how the victim reacts to the bullying. It is
important to determine if the victim is provocative. How the information is
conveyed is very important.

Chapter III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the research method, sources of data gathering
instruments that used in the investigation.

Research Design
The researchers used the descriptive analytical method of research for this is the
most approciate means of evaluating the effects of bullying among children and
its implication to behavior.